Just a short blog to let you know the Bold Journey interview is officially out, and I’m sitting with a mix of gratitude, vulnerability, and quiet pride.

This wasn’t just another interview for me. It felt like a pause. A moment to look back at the winding, messy, nonlinear road that led me here and to name it without minimizing it.

In the interview, I talk about resilience, curiosity, grit, and the people who shaped me. I talk about my Mamá teaching me how to read in Spanish, about becoming a mother young, about building a creative life that didn’t come with a blueprint. I talk about learning through discomfort, about doing things wrong and still moving forward, and about choosing growth even when quitting felt easier.

What I appreciate most about Bold Journey is that they don’t ask you to polish your story into something palatable. They let it be real. And that matters to me, because so much of my work, both as a writer and as a person, lives in that space between survival and softness.

If there’s one thing I hope people take from the interview, it’s this: you don’t need permission to evolve. You don’t need to have it all figured out. Curiosity, persistence, and the willingness to keep learning can carry you further than perfection ever will.

This interview feels like a marker. Not an arrival, but a recognition. A reminder that the work matters. That the story matters. That I matter.

You can read the full interview here:
👉 https://boldjourney.com/meet-johanny-ortega/

And if you’re in a season of doubt, of rebuilding, of becoming, I hope you see yourself somewhere in these answers.